A 13 April 2011 article by Steve Watson on the Infowars.com website titled “Parents Threatened by TSA Before 6 Year Old was Groped, Girl then Broke Down in Tears” reports that in early April 2011, a U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at New Orleans, Louisiana’s Armstrong International Airport singled out a six-year old Kentucky girl for an enhanced pat down, refusing the girl’s parents’ request to alternatively rescan the child, and implying serious trouble for the parents if they did not allow the molestation to continue.Mr. Watson commented: “To pick out a six year old child a possible security threat and frisk her for dangerous weapons in an American airport is utterly insane, however it is far from an isolated incident….If anyone else abducted someone’s child and then sexually molested them they would be rightly called a pedophile and locked up for a long time, but when the government does it not only is it deemed acceptable, but it also trains a whole generation of children that being kidnapped by an adult and having their genitals groped is normal.”

A 15 April 2011 article by Heidi Hemmat of KDVR.com titled “Colorado Man Claims He Was 'Sexually Assaulted' by TSA” reports that on 5 April 2011, a Colorado man at Denver International Airport waiting to go through a metal detector began to be pushed by a TSA agent who forced the passenger toward a body scanner. The passenger asked the agent why he was being moved out of line, and the agent called a supervisor, threatened to kick the passenger out of the airport, and began what the passenger termed an “inappropriate pat down.” The TSA agent rubbed the passenger’s groin area, buttocks, and stuck his hand down the passenger’s pants. The passenger said: "He was only focused on my private parts.”

Michael German, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who now works as legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) commented: “Expressing your contempt about airport procedures -- that's a First Amendment-protected right. We all have the right to express our views, and particularly in a situation where the government is demanding the ability to search you.”

The TSA website lists the core competencies expected of a TSA CCO, including the requirement that a TSA CCO: “…creates a culture that fosters high standards of ethics; behaves in a fair and ethical manner toward others and demonstrates a sense of corporate responsibility and commitment to public service.” When the TSA CCO in question was asked about how spiking Ken Ham’s Facebook page with pornography and profanity is consistent with the website-listed ethical requirements, the TSA CCO said that what he did “is a non-issue for the TSA….[While off duty], I can say anything I [expletive] well please.”

by Dr. Michael A. Milton(CHARLOTTE, NC) – 19 April 2011 - The senior chaplain came to me for counseling, struggling with how he would face the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him square in the eyes, “Chaplain, this nation needs you to stand strong for your convictions now more than ever. It is not time to retreat, but to minister as the pastor to our military that God has called you to be.”

While budget battles rage in DC, radiation leaks in Japan, and the Middle East rumbles with uncertainty, the U.S. military has quietly but dutifully began following orders to train for the probable repeal of DADT, the policy which disallows military service to avowed homosexuals.

The repeal of DADT (which cannot be initiated until 60 days after the President, Defense Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt the military’s ability to fight) remains a decisive story. But the 24-hour news cycle on this one is up. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and guardsmen are on their own. Yet this story is not over. At the center of the story are now chaplains.

Chaplains are the unheralded heroes of the military. They are, to use Army language, “force multipliers.” Providing religious services is only one important task they do. Chaplains are there to counsel all military members, guide the commander about world religions, and ensure that all have the opportunity to follow their religion, even when it is different from their own.

Asking chaplains to minister biblical truth to what the Bible condemns is nothing new. Asking chaplains to keep quiet about what the Bible condemns is. So far no agency is trying to stop chaplains from preaching the doctrines their denominations ordained them to teach, or obstructing them from counseling homosexuals (or adulterous heterosexuals, for that matter) according to their confessions. Yet will there be pressure applied tomorrow by militant homosexual activists to change that?

If challenged, evangelical chaplains I know will not capitulate. They will preach the truth in love. They will minister to homosexuals in the same way they minister to all, in the love and grace of Jesus Christ whose commands are life. However they will call sin a sin, and offer forgiveness and salvation. Let’s pray that the chaplains’ freedoms continue, for our freedoms rest on the moral foundations they seek to build.

Let’s pray they stand strong. For if ever we needed our chaplains, it is now.

Michael Anthony Milton (Ph.D., University of Wales) serves as the chancellor/CEO elect of Reformed Theological Seminary (one of the largest accredited seminaries in the country), a U.S. Army chaplain and the James M. Baird Jr. chair of pastoral theology at RTS/Charlotte. He is an author, songwriter, singer, ordained minister, former pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., and he previously served as the president of RTS/Charlotte. Dr. Milton also hosts a national Bible teaching television program, Faith for Living, broadcast on the NRB Television Network, and a radio program broadcast on several stations in the southeast. For 16 years he served in the business world and has also served as a top-secret Navy linguist.

The Chairman of the Theological Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance, Thomas Schirrmacher, declared that the burning of the Koran is an act that occurred against the clear will of Jesus, who prohibited his disciples from using the sword against others as well as calling down fire from heaven. With their act, the congregation in Gainesville, in the presence of Terry Jones, sullied the name of Jesus Christ before the entire world. Terry Jones pointed to the fact that the WEA had repeatedly expressed massive opposition to the Koran burning and in the USA had closed ranks with Muslim leaders on this issue.

Schirrmacher also pointed out that the WEA had warned Jones and others repeatedly that the price for the madness was not to be paid by Jones and others in the safety of America but rather by innocent people around the world. Precisely that has now happened, as little as the burning of a book could justify the murder of people.

The fact that in the attack Hindus and non-religious people were murdered shows, according to Schirrmacher, that Islamism is not only directed against Christianity, but rather that it is a mobilizing agent against all of those who think differently. Peace loving people of all religions and world views have to corporately direct themselves against such a thing. Religious freedom, peace, and justice are indivisible.

Jawad Mazhar, Special Correspondent for Assist News Service, reported 17 April 2011 that a thirteen-year-old Christian girl in Faisalabad, Pakistan, was abducted 8 April 2011 by a Muslim man on a motor bike that grabbed the girl from in front of her home, drove the girl to his residence, and raped her. The girl’s father found out from neighbors what had happened, went to the locked residence of the abductor, broke into the locked home, and found his daughter with her abductor. The abductor fled the scene, threatening to kill the father and to implicate him in police cases, telling the father that he “would face dire consequences.” The father subsequently registered a charge of rape against the abductor, who remains at large.

A local journalist who heads a new Christian rights organization called for the arrest of the abductor-rapist, and stated that Pakistani Muslims are "domineering Christians like their slaves" because Christians are “socially and financially weaker than Muslims.”

Colin Atkinson, a fifteen year employee of the private, non-profit Wakefield District Housing (WDH) in Yorkshire, England, had for eight years discretely displayed an eight-inch palm cross on the dashboard of his work van, until a complaint was lodged by a tenant that the cross might cause offense to those of other faiths. WDH management then told Mr. Atkinson to remove the cross because allowing display of the cross favors Christianity and may be offensive to others.

Mr. Atkinson refused to remove the cross, citing the fact that the WDH allows members of other faiths to wear the headdresses, beards, and turbans, which are distinctives of their faith. He is now under investigation for alleged failure to comply, and will soon find out whether or not he will face disciplinary action.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “Colin Atkinson is a decent and hardworking man, yet after many years of service he has been told that he cannot continue to have a small palm cross in his van. This smacks of something deeply illiberal and remarkably intolerant. Freedom of expression now needs to be robustly defended. When a man can't display a palm cross in his van in a historically Christian country, it should give people serious pause for thought. Is this the kind of society that the British public want to live in?”

“The cross is a profound symbol of God's love for all of us. We should not be embarrassed about it, and the historic Christian character of this nation should be retained for the benefit of all.”

Mr. Whitney and his first wife Muriel Johnson, now deceased, served for ten years as missionaries in Cameroon, West Africa, where Mr. Whitney taught math and physics. When the Whitneys returned from missionary service, Mr. Whitney became an executive for the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)and earned a doctorate in education from Columbia University. Dr. Whitney remarried in 1979 to Lorenza "Lori" Washington, and they moved to Sarasota, Florida, in 1998, where Dr. Whitney became a Ruling Elder at First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA). The second Mrs. Whitney died in 2008.

A funeral service was held 18 April 2011 at First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Whitney is survived by two daughters, Sandra Curry and Karen Whitney; step-son Earl Tucker; son-in-law Donald Curry; grandson Peter Curry; a sister, Ada Robinson, and many nieces and nephews.

Dykstra speculated that during his tenure as CRCNA Executive Director, his focusing more on churches and less on denominational agencies “created some tension in the system. Certain folks didn’t think that’s where I should be spending my time.”CRCNA Board of Trustees President the Rev. Mark Vermaire remarked: “Jerry has been and remains a member in good standing in the CRC[NA].”

[10] Kuyper Common Grace Translation ProjectGRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (19 April 2011)—The Acton Institute and Kuyper College are collaborating to bring for the first time to English-language readers a foundational text from the pen of the Dutch theologian and statesman, Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper’s three-volume work, Common Grace (De gemeene gratie) appeared from 1901-05, during his tenure as prime minister in the Netherlands.

These works are based on a series of newspaper editorials intended to equip common citizens and laypersons with the tools they needed to effectively enter public life. The doctrine of common grace is, as Kuyper puts it, “the root conviction for all Reformed people.”

“If the believer’s God is at work in this world,” says Kuyper, “then in this world the believer’s hand must take hold of the plow, and the name of the Lord must be glorified in that activity as well.”

Dr. Stephen Grabill, director of programs at the Acton Institute, serves as general editor of the project. He points to the contemporary need to understand Kuyper’s comprehensive and cohesive vision for Christian social engagement. “There are a host of current attempts to try to describe how evangelicals should be at work in the world,” Grabill said. “Kuyper’s articulation of the project of common grace shows how these efforts must be grounded in and flow naturally from sound doctrine.”

Placing social engagement, particularly within the context of business activity, in the broader context of sound theology is a large part of what led Kuyper College to partner in this translation project. “Abraham Kuyper’s project in Common Grace helps provide a reliable and engaging theological basis for our new business leadership program,” said Kuyper College president Nicholas Kroeze.

John Bolt, professor of systematic theology at Calvin Theological Seminary and author of A Free Church, a Holy Nation: Abraham Kuyper’s American Public Theology, will serve as a theological advisor to the project. He describes Kuyper’s work as intended “to challenge the pious, orthodox, Reformed people of the Netherlands to take seriously their calling in Dutch culture and society. His basic argument was: God is not absent from the non-church areas of our common life but bestows his gifts and favor indiscriminately to all people.”

The translation and publication project will cover a two year period, and the three volumes total over 1,700 pages in the original. Dr. Nelson Kloosterman of Worldview Resources International and translator of numerous Dutch works will oversee the translation of the texts. The completed translation will be published by Christian’s Library Press, the recently acquired imprint of the Acton Institute. Volume one of Common Grace is scheduled to appear in the fall of 2012.

An “art” exhibit called "I Believe in Miracles" at the modern art museum Collection Lambert in Avignon, France, featured a 1987 photograph by American “artist” Andres Serrano of a crucifix immersed in urine and blood which the artist calls "Immersion ([Expletive] Christ)."

A 17 April 2011 visitor destroyed the photograph with a hammer, and inadvertently damaged another of the “artist’s” photographs in a struggle with a guard. The hammer wielder escaped with the help of an accomplice.

Christian activists staged a 16 April 2011 demonstration at the gallery, characterizing “Immersion” as blasphemous and demanding the photograph be removed from the exhibition. The group General Alliance Against Racism and for the Respect of the French and Christian Identity has a 20 April 2011 court date where the organization will ask for the court to order “Immersion” be removed from the exhibit. The organization says that “Immersion” “insults and injures Christians at the heart of their faith."

Pastor Boekestein uses “Getting the Message” as a text for teaching biblical interpretation at a lay level, out of a desire to give church members the practical tools necessary for better understanding God's Word.